THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Roche and General Jumper, General Rosa,
Attorney General Ashcroft, Congresswoman Heather Wilson -- Air Force
Academy graduate 1982 -- Academy staff and faculty, distinguished
guests, officers, cadets, members of the graduating class, and your
families: Thank you for the warm welcome. (Applause.) And thank you
for the honor to visit the United States Air Force Academy on your 50th
anniversary. (Applause.)

You've worked hard to get to this moment. You survived "Beast,"
spent seven months eating your meals at attention, carried boulders
from Cathedral rock, and endured countless hours in "Jack's Valley."
In four years, you've been transformed from "basics" and "smacks" --
(laughter) -- to proud officers and airmen, worthy of the degree and
the commission you receive. Congratulations on a great achievement.
(Applause.)

Your superintendent has made a positive difference in a short
time. I thank him for helping to restore the Academy's tradition of
honor, which applies to every man and woman, without exception.
(Applause.) I thank the superb faculty for your high standards and
dedication to preparing Air Force officers. And I thank the parents
here today for standing behind your sons and daughters as they step
forward to serve America. (Applause.)

This is a week of remembrance for our country. On Saturday we
dedicated the World War II Memorial in Washington, in the company of
veterans who fought and flew at places like Midway, and Iwo Jima and
Normandy. This weekend I will go to France for the ceremonies marking
the 60th anniversary of D-Day, at a place where the fate of millions
turned on the courage of thousands. In these events we recall a time
of peril, and national unity, and individual courage. We honor a
generation of Americans who served this country and saved the liberty
of the world. (Applause.)

On this day in 1944, General Eisenhower sat down at his
headquarters in the English countryside, and wrote out a message to the
troops who would soon invade Normandy. "Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen
of the Allied Expeditionary Force," he wrote, "the eyes of the world
are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people
everywhere march with you."

Each of you receiving a commission today in the United States
military will also carry the hopes of free people everywhere.
(Applause.) As your generation assumes its own duties during a global
conflict that will define your careers, you will be called upon to take
brave action and serve with honor. In some ways, this struggle we're
in is unique. In other ways, it resembles the great clashes of the
last century -- between those who put their trust in tyrants and those
who put their trust in liberty. Our goal, the goal of this generation,
is the same: We will secure our nation and defend the peace through
the forward march of freedom.

Like the Second World War, our present conflict began with a
ruthless, surprise attack on the United States. We will not forget
that treachery, and we will accept nothing less than victory over the
enemy.

Like the murderous ideologies of the 20th century, the ideology of
terrorism reaches across boarders, and seeks recruits in every
country. So we're fighting these enemies wherever they hide across the
earth.

Like other totalitarian movements, the terrorists seek to impose a
grim vision in which dissent is crushed, and every man and woman must
think and live in colorless conformity. So to the oppressed peoples
everywhere, we are offering the great alternative of human liberty.

Like enemies of the past, the terrorists underestimate the strength
of free peoples. The terrorists believe that free societies are
essentially corrupt and decadent, and with a few hard blows will
collapse in weakness and in panic. The enemy has learned that America
is strong and determined, because of the steady resolve of our
citizens, and because of the skill and strength of the Army, Navy,
Marines, Coast Guard and the United States Air Force. (Applause.)

And like the aggressive ideologies that rose up in the early 1900s,
our enemies have clearly and proudly stated their intentions: Here are
the words of al Qaeda's self-described military spokesman in Europe, on
a tape claiming responsibility for the Madrid bombings. He said, "We
choose death, while you choose life. If you do not stop your
injustices, more and more blood will flow and these attacks will seem
very small compared to what can occur in what you call terrorism."

Here are the words of another al Qaeda spokesman, Suleiman Abu
Gheith. Last year, in an article published on an al Qaeda website, he
said, "We have the right to kill four million Americans -- two million
of them children -- and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple
hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, it is our right to fight them with
chemical and biological weapons."

In all these threats, we hear the echoes of other enemies in other
times -- that same swagger and demented logic of the fanatic. Like
their kind in the past, these murderers have left scars and suffering.
And like their kind in the past, they will flame and fail and suffer
defeat by free men and women. (Applause.)

The enemies of freedom are opposed by a great and growing
alliance. Nations that won the Cold War, nations once behind an Iron
Curtain, and nations on every continent see this threat clearly. We're
cooperating at every level of our military, law enforcement and
intelligence to meet the danger. The war on terror is civilization's
fight. And, as in the struggles of the last century, civilized nations
are waging this fight together.

The terrorists of our day are, in some ways, unlike the enemies of
the past. The terrorist ideology has not yet taken control of a great
power like Germany or the Soviet Union. And so the terrorists have
adopted a strategy different from the gathering of vast and standing
armies. They seek, instead, to demoralize free nations with dramatic
acts of murder. They seek to wear down our resolve and will by killing
the innocent and spreading fear and anarchy. And they seek weapons of
mass destruction, so they can threaten or attack even the most powerful
nations.

Fighting this kind of enemy is a complex mission that will require
all your skill and resourcefulness. Our enemies have no capital or
nation-state to defend. They share a vision and operate as a network
of dozens of violent extremist groups around the world, striking
separately and in concert. Al Qaeda is the vanguard of these loosely
affiliated groups, and we estimate that over the years many thousands
of recruits have passed through its training camps. Al Qaeda has been
wounded by losing nearly two-thirds of its known leadership, and most
of its important sanctuaries. Yet many of the terrorists it trained
are still active in hidden cells or in other groups. Home-grown
extremists, incited by al Qaeda's example, are at work in many
nations.

And since September the 11th, we've seen terrorist violence in an
arc from Morocco to Spain to Turkey to Russia to Uzbekistan to Pakistan
to India to Thailand to Indonesia. Yet the center of the conflict, the
platform for their global expansion, the region they seek to remake in
their image, is the broader Middle East.

Just as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War,
events in the Middle East will set the course of our current struggle.
If that region is abandoned to dictators and terrorists, it will be a
constant source of violence andd alarm, exporting killers of increasing
destructive power to attack America and other free nations. If that
region grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the terrorist
movement will lose its sponsors, lose its recruits, and lose the
festering grievances that keep terrorists in business. The stakes of
this struggle are high. The security and peace of our country are at
stake, and success in this struggle is our only option. (Applause.)

This is the great challenge of our time, the storm in which we
fly. History is once again witnessing a great clash. This is not a
clash of civilizations. The civilization of Islam, with its humane
traditions of learning and tolerance, has no place for this violent
sect of killers and aspiring tyrants. This is not a clash of
religions. The faith of Islam teaches moral responsibility that
enobles men and women, and forbids the shedding of innocent blood.
Instead, this is a clash of political visions.

In the terrorists' vision of the world, the Middle East must fall
under the rule of radical governments, moderate Arab states must be
overthrown, nonbelievers must be expelled from Muslim lands, and the
harshest practice of extremist rule must be universally enforced. In
this vision, books are burned, terrorists are sheltered, women are
whipped, and children are schooled in hatred and murder and suicide.

Our vision is completely different. We believe that every person
has a right to think and pray and live in obedience to God and
conscience, not in frightened submission to despots. (Applause.) We
believe that societies find their greatness by encouraging the creative
gifts of their people, not in controlling their lives and feeding their
resentments. And we have confidence that people share this vision of
dignity and freedom in every culture because liberty is not the
invention of Western culture, liberty is the deepest need and hope of
all humanity. The vast majority of men and women in Muslim societies
reject the domination of extremists like Osama bin Laden. They're
looking to the world's free nations to support them in their struggle
against the violent minority who want to impose a future of darkness
across the Middle East. We will not abandon them to the designs of
evil men. We will stand with the people of that region as they seek
their future in freedom. (Applause.)

We bring more than a vision to this conflict -- we bring a strategy
that will lead to victory. And that strategy has four commitments:

First, we are using every available tool to dismantle, disrupt and
destroy terrorists and their organizations. With all the skill of our
law enforcement, all the stealth of our special forces, and all the
global reach of our air power, we will strike the terrorists before
they can strike our people. The best way to protect America is to stay
on the offensive. (Applause.)

Secondly, we are denying terrorists places of sanctuary or
support. The power of terrorists is multiplied when they have safe
havens to gather and train recruits. Terrorist havens are found within
states that have difficulty controlling areas of their own territory.
So we're helping governments like the Philippines and Kenya to enforce
anti-terrorist laws, through information sharing and joint training.

Terrorists also find support and safe haven within outlaw regimes.
So I have set a clear doctrine that the sponsors of terror will be held
equally accountable for the acts of terrorists. (Applause.) Regimes
in Iraq and Afghanistan learned that providing support and sanctuary to
terrorists carries with it enormous costs -- while Libya has discovered
that abandoning the pursuit of weapons of mass murder has opened a
better path to relations with the free world.

Terrorists find their ultimate support and sanctuary when they gain
control of governments and countries. We saw the terrible harm that
terrorists did by taking effective control over the government of
Afghanistan -- a terrorist victory that led directly to the attacks of
September the 11th. And terrorists have similar designs on Iraq, on
Pakistan, on Saudi Arabia and many other regional governments they
regard as illegitimate. We can only imagine the scale of terrorist
crimes were they to gain control of states with weapons of mass murder
or vast oil revenues. So we will not retreat. We will prevent the
emergence of terrorist-controlled states.

Third, we are using all elements of our national power to deny
terrorists the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons they seek.
Because this global threat requires a global response, we are working
to strengthen international institutions charged with opposing
proliferation. We are working with regional powers and international
partners to confront the threats of North Korea and Iran. We have
joined with 14 other nations in the Proliferation Security Initiative
to interdict -- on sea, on land, or in the air -- shipments of weapons
of mass destruction, components to build those weapons, and the means
to deliver them. Our country must never allow mass murderers to gain
hold of weapons of mass destruction. We will lead the world and keep
unrelenting pressure on the enemy. (Applause.)

Fourth and finally, we are denying the terrorists the ideological
victories they seek by working for freedom and reform in the broader
Middle East. Fighting terror is not just a matter of killing or
capturing terrorists. To stop the flow of recruits into terrorist
movement, young people in the region must see a real and hopeful
alternative -- a society that rewards their talent and turns their
energies to constructive purpose. And here the vision of freedom has
great advantages. Terrorists incite young men and women to strap bombs
on their bodies and dedicate their deaths to the death of others. Free
societies inspire young men and women to work, and achieve, and
dedicate their lives to the life of their country. And in the long
run, I have great faith that the appeal of freedom and life is stronger
than the lure of hatred and death.

Freedom's advance in the Middle East will have another very
practical effect. The terrorist movement feeds on the appearance of
inevitability. It claims to rise on the currents of history, using
past America withdrawals from Somalia and Beirut to sustain this myth
and to gain new followers. The success of free and stable governments
in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere will shatter the myth and
discredit the radicals. (Applause.) And as the entire region sees the
promise of freedom in its midst, the terrorist ideology will become
more and more irrelevant, until that day when it is viewed with
contempt or ignored altogether. (Applause.)

For decades, free nations tolerated oppression in the Middle East
for the sake of stability. In practice, this approach brought little
stability, and much oppression. So I have changed this policy. In the
short-term, we will work with every government in the Middle East
dedicated to destroying the terrorist networks. In the longer-term, we
will expect a higher standard of reform and democracy from our friends
in the region. (Applause.) Democracy and reform will make those
nations stronger and more stable, and make the world more secure by
undermining terrorism at it source. Democratic institutions in the
Middle East will not grow overnight; in America, they grew over
generations. Yet the nations of the Middle East will find, as we have
found, the only path to true progress is the path of freedom and
justice and democracy. (Applause.)

America is pursuing our forward strategy for freedom in the broader
Middle East in many ways. Voices in that region are increasingly
demanding reform and democratic change. So we are working with
courageous leaders like President Karzai of Afghanistan, who is
ushering in a new era of freedom for the Afghan people. We're taking
aside reformers, and we're standing for human rights and political
freedom, often at great personal risk. We're encouraging economic
opportunity and the rule of law and government reform and the expansion
of liberty throughout the region.

And we're working toward the goal of a Palestinian state living
side by side with Israel in peace. (Applause.) Prime Minister
Sharon's plan to remove all settlements from Gaza and several from the
West Bank is a courageous step toward peace. (Applause.) His decision
provides an historic moment of opportunity to begin building a future
Palestinian state. This initiative can stimulate progress toward peace
by setting the parties back on the road map, the most reliable guide to
ending the occupation that began in 1967. This success will require
reform-minded Palestinians to step forward and lead and meet their road
map obligations. And the United States of America stands ready to help
those dedicated to peace, those willing to fight violence, find a new
state so we can realize peace in the greater Middle East. (Applause.)

Some who call themselves "realists" question whether the spread of
democracy in the Middle East should be any concern of ours. But the
realists in this case have lost contact with a fundamental reality.
America has always been less secure when freedom is in retreat.
America is always more secure when freedom is on the march.

All our commitments in the Middle East -- all of the four
commitments of our strategy -- are now being tested in Iraq. We have
removed a state-sponsor of terror with a history of using weapons of
mass destruction. And the whole world is better off with Saddam
Hussein sitting in a prison cell. (Applause.) We now face al Qaeda
associates like the terrorist Zarqawi, who seek to hijack the future of
that nation. We are fighting enemies who want us to retreat, and leave
Iraq to tyranny, so they can claim an ideological victory over
America. They would use that victory to gather new strength, and take
their violence directly to America and to our friends.

Yet our coalition is determined, and the Iraqi people have made
clear: Iraq will remain in the camp of free nations. (Applause.)

The Iraqi people are moving forward, in clear, steady steps, with
our support, to achieve democracy. Iraq now has a designated Prime
Minister, Ayad Allawi, a respected Iraqi patriot once targeted by
Saddam Hussein's assassins. I spoke with the Prime Minister
yesterday. He recognized the sacrifice of brave Americans who have
given their lives in Iraq, and he pledged that his country would be a
friend and ally of America in peace. (Applause.)

Along with a president and two deputy presidents, Prime Minister
Allawi will lead a government of 33 ministers, which take office
immediately, and begin preparing for the transfer of full sovereignty
by June the 30th. America and Great Britain are now working with the
United Nations Security Council and Iraq's new leaders on a resolution
that will endorse the sovereign government of Iraq, and urge other
nations to actively support it.

The Iraqi people are looking to us for help, and we will provide
it. Many fine civilian professionals are now working in that country,
helping Iraqis to rebuild their infrastructure and build the
institutions of a free country. Along with the United Nations, we will
help Iraq's new government to prepare for national elections by January
of 2005. This free election is what the terrorists in the country fear
most. Free elections are exactly what they are going to see.

Our military is performing with skill and courage, and our nation
is proud of the United States military. (Applause.) Many brave Iraqis
have stepped forward to fight for their own freedom, and we are working
closely with them to disband and destroy the illegal militia, to defeat
the terrorists, and to secure the safe arrival of Iraqi democracy.
We're stepping up our efforts to train effective Iraqi security forces
that will eventually defend the liberty of their own country.

At every stage of this process, before and after the transition to
Iraqi sovereignty, the enemy is likely to be active and brutal. They
know the stakes as well as we do. But our coalition is prepared, our
will is strong, and neither Iraq's new leadership nor the United States
will be intimidated by thugs and assassins.

As we fight the war on terror in Iraq and on other fronts, we must
keep in mind the nature of the enemy. No act of America explains
terrorist violence, and no concession of America could appease it. The
terrorists who attacked our country on September the 11th, 2001 were
not protesting our policies. They were protesting our existence. Some
say that by fighting the terrorists abroad since September the 11th, we
only stir up a hornet's nest. But the terrorists who struck that day
were stirred up already. (Applause.) If America were not fighting
terrorists in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and elsewhere, what would these
thousands of killers do, suddenly begin leading productive lives of
service and charity? (Laughter.) Would the terrorists who beheaded an
American on camera just be quiet, peaceful citizens if America had not
liberated Iraq? We are dealing here with killers who have made the
death of Americans the calling of their lives. And America has made a
decision about these terrorists: Instead of waiting for them to strike
again in our midst, we will take this fight to the enemy. (Applause.)

We are confident of our cause in Iraq, but the struggle we have
entered will not end with success in Iraq. Overcoming terrorism, and
bringing greater freedom to the nations of the Middle East, is the work
of decades. To prevail, America will need the swift and able
transformed military you will help to build and lead. America will
need a generation of Arab linguists, and experts on Middle Eastern
history and culture. America will need improved intelligence
capabilities to track threats and expose the plans of unseen enemies.

Above all, America will need perseverance. This conflict will take
many turns, with setbacks on the course to victory. Through it all,
our confidence comes from one unshakable belief: We believe, in Ronald
Reagan's words, that "the future belongs to the free." (Applause.)
And we've seen the appeal of liberty with our own eyes. We have seen
freedom firmly established in former enemies like Japan and Germany.
We have seen freedom arrive, on waves of unstoppable progress, to
nations in Latin America, and Asia, and Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Now freedom is stirring in the Middle East, and no one should bet
against it. (Applause.)

In the years immediately after World War II ended, our nation faced
more adversity and danger with the rise of imperial communism. In
1947, communist forces were pressing a civil war in Greece, and
threatening Turkey. More than two years after the Nazi surrender,
there was still starvation in Germany, reconstruction seemed to be
faltering, and the Marshall Plan had not yet begun. In 1948, Berlin
was blockaded on the orders of Josef Stalin. In 1949, the Soviet Union
exploded a nuclear weapon, and communists in China won their
revolution.

All of this took place in the first four years of the Cold War. If
that generation of Americans had lost its nerve, there would have been
no "long twilight struggle," only a long twilight. But the United
States and our allies kept faith with captive peoples, and stayed true
to the vision of a democratic Europe. And that perseverance gave all
the world a lesson in the power of liberty. (Applause.)

We are now about three years into the war against terrorism. We
have overcome great challenges, we face many today, and there are more
ahead. This is no time for impatience and self-defeating pessimism.
These times demand the kind of courage and confidence that Americans
have shown before. Our enemy can only succeed if we lose our will and
faith in our own values. And ladies and gentlemen, our will is
strong. We know our duty. By keeping our word, and holding firm to
our values, this generation will show the world the power of liberty
once again. (Applause.)

For four years, you have trained and studied and worked for this
moment. And now it has come. You are the ones who will defeat the
enemies of freedom. Your country is depending on your courage and your
dedication to duty. The eyes of the world are upon you. You leave
this place at a historic time, and you enter this struggle ahead with
the full confidence of your Commander-in-Chief. I thank each of you
for accepting the hardships and high honor of service in the United
States military. And I congratulate every member of the Rickenbacker
Class of 2004. (Applause.)